Japan votes for key election in shadow of Abe assassination
Tokyo: Japanese went to the polls Sunday in the shadow of the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was gunned down while making a campaign speech. Abe's governing party appeared to be cruising to a major victory.
As people voted, police in western Japan sent the alleged assassin to a local prosecutors' office for further investigation. A day earlier a top regional police official acknowledged possible security lapses that allowed the attacker to get so close and fire a bullet at the still-influential former Japanese leader.
In a country still recovering from the shock, sadness and fear of Abe's shooting the first former or serving leader to be assassinated in postwar Japan polling started for half of the upper house, the less powerful of Japan's two-chamber parliament. Abe was shot in Nara on Friday and airlifted to a hospital but died of blood loss. Police arrested a former member of Japan's navy at the scene. Police confiscated a homemade gun and several others were later found at his apartment.
The alleged attacker, Tetsuya Yamagami, told investigators he acted because of Abe's rumored connection to an organization that he resented, police said, but had no problem with the former leader's political view. The man had developed hatred toward a religious group that his mother was obsessed about and that bankrupted a family business, according to media reports, including some that identified the group as the Unification Church. Abe's body, in a black hearse accompanied by his wife, Akie, returned to his home in Tokyo's upscale Shibuya, where many mourners, including Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and top party officials, paid tribute. His wake and funeral are expected in coming days. Nara prefectural police chief Tomoaki Onizuka on Saturday said that Abe's assassination was the greatest regret in his 27-year career. He said problems with security were undeniable, that he took the shooting seriously and will review the
guarding procedures.
